Artist: John Lees
Title: A Major Fancy
Year Of Release: 1977/2010
Country: UK
Label: Esoteric
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Prog Rock, Eclectic Prog
Quality: FLAC | lossless

John Lees is best known as guitarist and vocalist with Barclay James Harvest. Born in Oldham in the north of England in 1947, he began playing guitar at the age of 14. He met Stuart "Wooly" Wolstenholme at Oldham School of Art in 1964, and the pair went on to play in a band called The Sorcerers. In 1966, they joined up with Les Holroyd and Mel Prichard plus two others to form The Blues Keepers. The band became a four piece and changed their name to Barclay James Harvest.

Lees has remained a member of that band ever since, although these days his version of the band is known as "Barclay James Harvest through the eyes of John Lees", Les Holroyd recording and touring separately with his own version.

To date, Lees has only released one solo album, "A major fancy". This was recorded in 1972 around the time the band was moving from Harvest records to Polydor, and was therefore shelved without being released. It eventually gained a commercial release in 1977 on the Harvest Heritage label. A single was recorded in 1974 containing cover versions of The Eagles "Best of my love" and Eric Clapton's "You can't get it". The single is now very collectible, but the songs can be heard on the CD release of the album.

Tracklist:
Disc 1:
1. Untitled No. 1 - Heritage - 7:54
2. Child Of The Universe - 6:18
3. Kes (A Major Fancy) - 2:33
4. Untitled No. 2 - 3:52
5. Sweet Faced Jane - 5:05
6. Witburg Night - 5:47
7. Long Ships - 5:20
8. Untitled No. 3 - 5:02
Disc 2:
1. Untitled No. 8 - 4:36
2. Child Of The Universe (First Version) - 6:28
3. Witburg Night (First Mix) - 5:48
4. Untitled No. 2 (First Version) - 3:51
5. Untitled No. 1 - Heritage (Alternate Mix) - 8:16
6. Best Of My Love (Don Henley, Glen Frey, J.D. Souther) - 3:40
7. You Can't Get It - 3:57
8. Please Be With Me (Charles Scott Boyer) - 2:47
9. Child Of The Universe (Single Edit) - 3:41

Personnel:
John Lees - Vocals, Acoustic, Electric Guitars
Wally Waller - Bass, Congas, Timbales, Mellotron, Vibraphone, Tubular Bells, Moog Synthesizer, Harmony Vocals
Skip Allen - Drums, Tambourine
Rod Argent - Organ
Gordon Edwards - Piano
Graham Preskett - Violin, Strings, Choral Arrangement
Rex Morrison - Tenor Saxophone
Kevin Godley - Percussion
Eric Stewart - Acoustic Guitar
The Mike Sammes Singers - Choir